AuthorTopic: noisy computer driving me nuts! (Read 37949 times)

I have an older Pentium IV computer that I got cheap. Since I run a webserver from it, I have it on most of the time. But it's so noisy. Truly starting to irritate me. Are other people's computers this noisy?

P4's do use a lot of power and run hot. When I had one I went to great lengths to quiet it, using an aftermarket heatsink and big, slow turning fans. You may get away by just using the current heatsink and aiming a 120mm fan at it. If it needs more, add baffles and direct all the air flow through the heatsink. Cardboard from cereal boxes and duct tape works wonders.

I am thinking of cutting out the side panel on my emachine and glue some home made frames for case filters to quiet it's cpu tornado fan down a bit. I think the metal amplifies the sound a bit and the filters will quiet down and absorb the noise a bit. Plus filter out the desert dust I live in.

Depending on your set up, and assuming your P-4 is a desktop, what I have done is disconnect the noisy computer fan, take off the side panel, and put small table-top Wal Mart type fan pointed to blow into the computer. Since you have it on all the time, no need to constantly turn the fan on and off. Being a bachelor, I can be as messy as I want.

I checked to see if there was dust on the fans, and there's not. They seem relatively clean. Generally the noise is average from the fans, but sometimes there's extra noise that's very loud. I now believe this is the hard drive. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about this.

You can often take the fan off the heat sink to clean the fins, I use a drinking straw and the vacuum,

place the straw between your thumb and finger and place the other end between your first two fingers over the hose this will allow control back and forth with out loss of suction or losing the straw to the vacuum. sometimes the dust in the fins of the heat sinks does not look like much but makes a differance.

If uncertain which fans are making the most noise you can unplug the box fans with the side off and see if it is the heat sink fan or hd fan.

as mentioned they are replacable new or used. one of mine is quiet if I press litely on it to put it back in place but spins back out and is noisy, you can test and see if the bearings are going.some fans are just noisey

If you do not know who did what it may be that the sink was removed and the paste not replaced and seated so the sink is not doing its job.

You could just crank some music and distract your attension aswell one of my tricks

Remove all fans from their mounts.On one side of each fan, there is usually a stick-on label. Peel those back just enough to access the small hub in the center -- so slightly more than halfway.One drop of oil in each fan's hub. Motor oil is best, 3-in-One if you must. WD-40 and kin are useless for this.Re-adhere label as much as possible.Remount and test.

It would be very unusual to have even a failing HD which is that loud.

Remove all fans from their mounts.On one side of each fan, there is usually a stick-on label. Peel those back just enough to access the small hub in the center -- so slightly more than halfway.One drop of oil in each fan's hub. Motor oil is best, 3-in-One if you must. WD-40 and kin are useless for this.Re-adhere label as much as possible.Remount and test.

It would be very unusual to have even a failing HD which is that loud.